29/04/24 - 02/05/2024 - Over 55's - Whiteacres Club Angler Festival

Fifteen of us this year. Me Geoff Francis and Chris Gay shared Lodge 4 on the side of Jenny's Lake. Nice position, clean but looking tired. No parking next to Lodge which was a pain in the ass.

First to arrive beating Jeff Grant by one minute. Was told by the management the cafe would be open for breakfast - NOT. So off to Morrisons for a decent breakfast with Chris Gay, Jeff and John Smith. Back to Whiteacres for a walk around. The Canal looked good with plenty of fish showing. Told they had transferred 1500 Carp from Trewaters, 1500 from Priory and a similar number of small Carp including F1's. Back to the club for a coffee!! We had early book in which was convenient. No one could be assed to go off site, so a Pizza in the club where you pay £6.20 for a pint sitting in the freezing cold - 11 degrees outside and the air conditioning was blowing more cold air!!

I had drawn Twin Oaks for the first match - as I'm not (yet) a Methodist it was the pellet waggler, which is wind condition dependant. So Geoff and me practiced it on the Sunday. We sat on pegs 7 and 9. Tony Pontin came down later and fished peg 2. We tried various things ending up we me showing Geoff the Ronnie rig. We had a great day catching Ronnie's to 1 lb and Perch to 12 oz on caster. Probably should had concentrated on the Carp but we wanted a day's fishing. We left Tony there - pictured just as he started to catch F1's short on pellet. Geoff and me walked down and back - going is OK but up hill on the way back.

We were joined by Glenn Bailey on Sunday night for a few days which was nice.

Festival day one drew peg 17 Twin Oaks - a flyer I'm told if the wind was blowing up that way. The wind was to be a nightmare which was blowing into the middle pegs slightly off my right shoulder. Limited to fishing the pole short and the margin, had set up the pellet waggler but due to the conditions never got used - I began to feel like a change of religion and joining the Methodist. Might get some info on how to fish it!! Tried down the margin with paste over GB then worm foul hooking two decent

Carp. Weighed 18 lb 7 oz of Silvers for last and 1 point - so a good start - not. The lake was won from peg 15 mostly on the method. I got a bit emotional to find that Butch whom I fished next to last year on the first match on Twin Oaks had passed away. He had "Willed" that some flowers be put on peg 16. So felt as if we were fishing together again this year. RIP matey.

Day two Trelawney for me peg 24 just in the wide bay. Thought the margin to my left would be ok for a few, alas not just got hammered on the paste by small silvers. Fished long with pellet then paste had a couple of small F1's it was fishing hard along our straight whereas around the corner Craig on the section end peg was catching well short on the pellet and method. Decided to switch to caster and at least had a day's fishing weighing 22 lb 5 oz for 5 points so  slight improvement. Most were fishing the Method on and off so not sure that would have helped me. However. if it wasn't for the bloody wind fancied the pellet waggler. I was bloody freezing and shivering come the end. The lake was won by Craig with 80 lb, he fished an excellent match switching between method to short pole. Well done matey. Too cold and wet to take for pictures today.

Day three Python and Acorn had fingers crossed for Acorn and very happy to draw peg 16. Walked it again! What a nice looking Lake - manicured. Fished what is now peg 18 many years ago on a rover match, think when it was first stocked. Not fished the paste end to end for a long while, use to be my go to bait, but got lead astray with silvers. So just set up two paste rigs one at top set plus three barrels which took me to the deepest part. The other paste rig for down the margin up to a few reeds in 2 1/2 foot of water at top set plus one barrel. Having been advised that the margins were good, fed there first with 4mm pellet, then the long line with 4's and

micro. Started down the margin with paste and expected some nibblers, but no a proper bite and a F1. Had a few and refed with micro and 4's and went out on the long line and the same more instant F1's which were averaging about 2 lb. So kept swapping between each line throughout after feeding. The long line started to produce Carassio's of 1 lb to 1 1/2 lb one a bung and the margin F1's when I switched to kindering hard 4's. I did have two Carp on the long line. Reckoned my 65 fish would go 120 lb. Weighed 113 lb 12 oz and had left a F1 in the net!

A lovely day's fishing for most on this Lake. This won the Lake and a decent pick up that paid for the evening meals.

Day 4 Jenny's which looking forward to fishing paste back to back. Heart sank when drawn peg 10. I've walked past this area of Jenny's many times and never fancied it. It just before the narrows with the wind funnelling through it making it very cold. Paste rig for margin to my right on top set and out at three barrels. Fed the margin and the long line as yesterday. After 2 hours the long line produce one Skimmer and the margin nibblers. Ricky Lale on peg 9 was emptying it on the method over to the point of the island. Had a tooth out 2 days before coming down and the cold was getting to it so turned by back to the wind and set up the Ronnie rig for caster over GB and caster. Had a nice days catching quality Ronnie's and Skimmers which were in a terrible state. As it was the last match put a load of DR's down the margin and it was nice to soon see Carp tails flapping about, however, too many arrived leading to 4 lost foul hooked big Carp on the paste. Should have started on this feeding little and often. Finished with 28 lb 10 oz of silver. The Lake was won by Ricky with 101 lb 10 oz adding a few better Carp down his LH edge later on corn.

Unfortunately the fishery want you to keep skimmers in the same net as the Carp for ease of weighing in which isn't good for them.

Geoff, Chris and me had some nice meals in the usual Indians in Newquay and the best burger I've had in the two Clomes. How Geoff managed a double Berger followed by a Sticky Toffee pudding I don't know. A shout out to Jake who came down to the cafe and ran it for the rest of the week, excellent service.

Overall the fishing was poor which wasn't helped by terrible weather. Rain and wind for most of the week. Finished 61 st  with 16 points. Only 13 points away from the winner making it a tight festival all round. Near misses for Chris Gay and Gary Bowden.

I would have liked to have fished Morgan Port with the lads on Friday but had to be home. Fond memories of fishing this pool in the day's of Janet who has long sold up " All in". However, the drive home was awful there was a fatality on the A30 which closed the entire road, diverting us along A30 to Plymouth up to Exeter.😡

Geoff and me will be going again next year and heard a rumour it might be three weeks later!?

Results:

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Overall Result: